In a cosmic twist worthy of a sci-fi plot, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to peer deep into space have discovered a planet-forming disk that defies expectations. Instead of the usual steamy soup of water vapor, this disk is bubbling with carbon dioxide and barely a trace of water. The discovery, led by Jenny Frediani at Stockholm University, is shaking up what we thought we knew about how planets like Earth form.
When stars are born, they form within a swirling disk of gas and dust, the nursery where planets eventually take shape. Usually, icy pebbles from the outer disk drift inward, melt in the warmth, and release water vapor. But this time, JWST’s MIRI instrument picked up something unexpected: a strong carbon dioxide signal and almost no water.
So what’s cooking up all this CO₂? Arjan Bik, another researcher at Stockholm University, suspects ultraviolet rays might be rewriting the disk’s chemistry.
The team also spotted rare versions of carbon dioxide, molecules with heavier isotopes, such as carbon-13 and oxygen-17 or -18. These could help solve mysteries about the chemical fingerprints found in ancient meteorites and comets from our own Solar System.
Webb observed the chemical signature of carbon-rich dust grains in the early Universe
This peculiar disk lives in NGC 6357, a massive star-forming region about 53 quadrillion kilometers away. The find comes courtesy of the XUE (eXtreme Ultraviolet Environments) collaboration, which studies how harsh radiation affects planet-making chemistry.
Thanks to JWST’s MIRI instrument, a powerful infrared camera and spectrograph co-developed by scientists at Stockholm University and Chalmers, astronomers can now peek into dusty, distant disks with stunning clarity. By comparing chaotic star-forming zones with quieter ones, researchers are beginning to map out the diverse origins of planets.
Journal Reference:
Jenny Frediani, Arjan Bik, María Claudia Ramírez-Tannus, Rens Waters, Konstantin V. Getman, Eric D. Feigelson, Bayron Portilla-Revelo, Benoît Tabone, Thomas J. Haworth, Andrew Winter, Thomas Henning, Giulia Perotti, Alexis Brandeker, Germán Chaparro, Pablo Cuartas-Restrepo, Sebastian Hernández A., Michael A. Kuhn, Thomas Preibisch, Veronica Roccatagliata, Sierk E. van Terwisga, Peter Zeidler. XUE: The CO2-rich terrestrial planet-forming region of an externally irradiated Herbig disk. Astronomy, 2025; 701: A14 DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202555718
Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery that challenges long-held assumptions about binary black holes. A new study of the gravitational wave event GW190814 suggests that this extraordinary merger was not an isolated cosmic encounter but may have taken place under the influence of a hidden supermassive black hole. Researchers at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory detected tell-tale signs of a third compact object shaping the merger, reshaping scientific understanding of how binary black holes form and evolve. This finding published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters opens a new frontier in gravitational wave astronomy, offering crucial insights into the universe’s most powerful and mysterious phenomena.
Astronomers discover hidden supermassive black hole influencing binary black hole mergers
Binary black holes are systems in which two black holes orbit around each other before eventually colliding in a cataclysmic merger. These events generate gravitational waves, ripples in space-time first predicted by Albert Einstein and detected directly in 2015 by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration. Since then, over 100 gravitational wave events have been recorded, most of them originating from binary black hole mergers.Until recently, most models assumed that such black hole pairs form and evolve in isolation. However, new findings challenge this view by revealing the potential presence of a third gravitationally dominant object nearby.
Clues of a hidden supermassive black hole shaping a cosmic merger: GW190814
The breakthrough comes from a detailed analysis of a gravitational wave event known as GW190814, detected in August 2019. This merger involved two compact objects with a highly unusual mass ratio of nearly 10:1—far more imbalanced than typically expected.According to Dr Wenbiao Han and his team at SHAO, this imbalance hints that the binary may have once been part of a hierarchical triple system, orbiting around a supermassive black hole. The gravitational pull of this hidden “giant” could have drawn the two black holes together, influencing both their orbital behaviour and the final merger.An alternative explanation proposed by the researchers is that the merger took place within the accretion disc of an active galactic nucleus, where intense gravitational interactions can force black holes closer until they collide.
New model reveals hidden third object in GW190814 merger
The researchers applied a novel approach to test their theory. They developed a gravitational waveform template that includes the effect of line-of-sight acceleration, a shift in gravitational wave frequency caused by the Doppler effect when a binary system orbits a third object.When they ran the model against LIGO-Virgo data, the results were striking:The team found that the binary black hole system showed a tiny but clear acceleration along our line of sight, about 0.002 times the speed of light per second. When they compared their model with the standard idea of an isolated binary black hole, their version fit the data far better. In fact, the evidence was 58 times stronger in favour of a third object being involved.“This is the first solid proof of a third compact object influencing a binary black hole merger,” said Dr Han. “It shows GW190814 likely didn’t form alone but inside a much more complex gravitational system. This discovery gives us important new clues about how binary black holes come together.”
The “b-EMRI” Model: A new pathway for black hole formation
The SHAO team had previously developed a model called b-EMRI (binary–extreme mass ratio inspiral). In this framework, a supermassive black hole captures a binary black hole, forming a hierarchical triple system. Such a configuration generates gravitational waves across a wide frequency range, signals that can be detected by both ground-based and space-based observatories.The b-EMRI model was highlighted in LISA’s white paper and has been identified as a prime target for China’s forthcoming space-based gravitational wave observatories, including Taiji and TianQin.
How a ‘mysterious giant’ is transforming our view of black holes
This breakthrough is far more than a scientific curiosity, it is reshaping how astrophysicists understand the universe’s most extreme phenomena. Unlocking the secrets of binary black hole formation is vital for several reasons:Stellar evolution: Shedding light on how massive stars end their lives in such extraordinary systems.Galactic environments: Revealing whether supermassive black holes at galactic centres play a role in guiding the fate of smaller stellar-mass black holes.Gravitational wave astronomy: Enabling more accurate models that refine how scientists interpret the signals detected by observatories.With next-generation detectors offering unmatched sensitivity, astronomers anticipate finding many more mergers influenced by hidden companions, bringing us closer to solving the mystery of how binary black holes are born and evolve.Also read | NASA discovers new shape of the solar system’s bubble: Not a comet, but a croissant
Influence of temperature on the rate of epoxidation
The temperatures needed to be adjusted started at 55 °C, 65 °C, and lastly, 75 °C. Data were collected during the experiment based on the observations made. RCO was calculated using the weight of the sample taken and the amount of hydrogen bromide used. As shown in Fig. 1B, the RCO changed over time. Specifically, at a temperature of 55 °C, the RCO reading increased significantly until the twentieth minute, after which it immediately decreased. Then, for a temperature of 65 °C, the optimum RCO had already been achieved at the tenth minute, and the RCO reading slowly decreased by two points below the optimum RCO achieved just then. Lastly, at a temperature of 75 °C, the same as the previous temperature, the optimum RCO was reached for the tenth time, and the temperature then moderately decreased.
Vegetable oil in situ epoxidation typically requires temperatures below 70 °C, as high temperatures during epoxidation lead to excessive epoxy ring-opening events. Furthermore, peroxy acids can explode at a temperature of 80–85 °C and easily break down when heated; however, as this epoxide mixture contained sulphuric acid as the catalyst, the ideal temperature needed to be slightly higher than the standard range of temperature for epoxidation, which was from 50 to 80 °C since the catalyst did react together with a peracid that would facilitate formation regarding an active epoxidizing species. The long-term stability of the produced epoxide was not extensively addressed in this study. Oxirane groups are sensitive to moisture, heat, and acidic conditions, which can promote spontaneous ring-opening and degradation over time22. To preserve epoxide stability, storage under low temperatures, in dry conditions, and away from light or acidic environments is recommended.
Influence of hydrogen peroxide on the corn oil molar ratio
For the last parameter, the molar ratio of hydrogen peroxide was investigated. Hydrogen peroxide was used to react with formic acid during the epoxidation process to form a peracid, specifically peroxyformic acid. For the previous experiment, the ratio of hydrogen peroxide used was 1:1; however, for this parameter, the ratio would change to 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 molar ratios. Based on Fig. 5, the highest yield of RCO was achieved at the twentieth minute, with a molar ratio of 1.5, and it subsequently decreased significantly thereafter. The highest RCO yield achieved in this parameter was approximately 43%; meanwhile, for the other molar ratios of 0.5 and 1.0, the RCO yields achieved were around 32% and 19%, respectively. At a molar ratio of 1.0, the graph fluctuated slightly.
In Fig. 2, the graph of the 1.5 molar ratio of hydrogen peroxide immediately decreased after it passed the highest epoxidation yield. This likely occurred due to the instability of the oxirane ring and may also be attributed to the side reaction that resulted from the excess hydrogen peroxide. This result was also quite contradictory to the finding from23, which, according to the data, obtained a larger proportion of RCO when the hydrogen peroxide concentration was raised. The oxirane ring showed poor stability at the lowest mole ratio of 1:1 between hydrogen peroxide and oleic acid.
Fig. 2
Effect of hydrogen peroxide on the molar ratio of the corn oil epoxidation rate of corn oil.
Influence of catalyst loading on the rate of epoxidation
In this experiment, sulphuric acid was used as the catalyst, and the weight of sulphuric acid was measured to determine the ideal amount of catalyst needed to reach the highest epoxidation yield. Based on Fig. 3, the graph for the catalyst loading of 3 g of sulphuric acid shows that the RCO yield reached its highest point, exceeding 70%. As the graph decreased, the RCO values remained the same at the twentieth and thirtieth minutes, indicating that the duration required to reach a lower point was longer than for other amounts of catalyst loading. For the 6 g and 9 g of sulphuric acid, the RCO yield didn’t achieve its high value, and both graphs just moderately went down after barely reaching their optimum point. Too many catalysts wouldn’t help the experiment reach its ideal RCO value; yet, the best amount proven in this experiment was only 3 g of sulfuric acid.
However, this finding contradicts the statement that the reaction time required to obtain the maximal conversion of oxirane value decreased when the acid concentration was raised from 1 to 2 g. Additionally, it was noted that glycol production increased as the acid concentration rose. Higher oxirane cleavage and a proportionally lower oxirane value were seen when the catalyst loading was raised to 3%. Therefore, a 2 g loading of sulphuric acid produced the best conversion to oxirane. As for the corn oil used in the experiment, the amount of sulphuric acid needed was the lowest among the others, which was only 3 g of catalyst. Too much sulphuric acid could lead to an oxirane ring opening and produce an unintended epoxide24. In this study, corn oil, a renewable and biodegradable resource, was used as the raw material, promoting bio-based feedstocks and supporting waste reduction initiatives. However, a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) and waste management evaluation would be necessary for future work to thoroughly assess the environmental benefits of using corn oil for epoxide production.
Fig. 3
Effect of catalyst loading on epoxidation rate of corn oil.
FTIR characterization
Figure 4 shows the FTIR spectra show clear differences between the corn oil before and after epoxidation. A strong peak near 1650 cm¹ is observed in the original corn oil, which corresponds to the C = C stretching vibration from unsaturated fatty acids. After epoxidation, the intensity of this peak decreases, indicating that the double bonds have reacted. A new absorption band appears around 820–850 cm-1 in the epoxidized sample, assigned to the C–O–C stretching of the oxirane group, confirming the formation of epoxide structures. Small changes are also seen in the C–H stretching region between 2850 and 2950 cm¹, suggesting slight modifications in the fatty acid chains. Overall, the FTIR results provide supporting evidence for successful epoxidation, complementing the wet chemical analysis for RCO determination25.
Fig. 4
FTIR spectra of corn oil and epoxidized corn oil.
Kinetic modelling of epoxidation of corn oil
The ideal reaction conditions for the epoxidation process were determined using kinetic modeling with MATLAB software; the reaction rate values, k, are listed in Table 2. For every chemical, the experimental data’s reaction rates, k, match the initial concentration. For the reaction rate (:{k}_{11}) The rate was a second slower than (:{k}_{12}). This was because the reaction only formed performic acid and its byproduct, water. The rate constant k11 (0.043 mol L-1 min-1) represents the epoxide formation, while k12 (12.53 mol L-1 min-1) reflects the consumption rate of intermediates in a secondary reaction pathway. The significantly higher value of k12 suggests that this step is much faster, which may impact the overall epoxide yield if not controlled.
The constants k2 (0.110 mol L-1min-1) and k3 (0.066 mol L-1min-1) correspond to the rates of epoxide formation and degradation through ring-opening, respectively. The lower value of k3 indicates a slower degradation rate, which is beneficial for preserving the oxirane content. The R2 value of 0.85 indicates a reasonable agreement between the experimental and simulated data, demonstrating the model’s ability to capture the reaction kinetics, though some minor discrepancies remain. The low sum of error (0.14) also supports the model’s reliability in describing the process. These results highlight the efficiency of the epoxidation process while identifying areas where further model refinement could enhance predictive accuracy.
Table 2 Rate constant for epoxidation and ring opening of epoxide.
Figure 5 illustrates a notable discrepancy between the simulation and the OOC experiment. The simulation graph was quite low, with its highest point only reaching below 0.6 OOC. Meanwhile, the experiment graph showed that the OOC could reach a higher value, almost 0.8, yet after the twentieth minute, it significantly decreased. This could be happening because of the purity of the solutions used or the efficiency of the epoxidation reaction. The deviations between the simulation and experimental results, especially near the peak oxirane content, are mainly due to simplified modeling assumptions that do not fully capture side reactions and oxirane degradation in linoleic acid-rich corn oil. Secondary ring-opening reactions, oxirane instability, and minor experimental variations may also contribute to the discrepancies. While the model predicts the overall trend well, the observed gaps highlight the need for more detailed kinetic mechanisms in future work.
Fig. 5
Comparison of the oxirane content between experiment and simulation.
Our bodies are colonized by a teeming, ever-changing mass of microbes that help power countless biological processes. Now, a new study has identified how these microorganisms get to work shaping the brain before birth.
Researchers at Georgia State University studied newborn mice specifically bred in a germ-free environment to prevent any microbe colonization. Some of these mice were immediately placed with mothers with normal microbiota, which leads to microbes being transferred rapidly.
That gave the study authors a way to pinpoint just how early microbes begin influencing the developing brain. Their focus was on the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), a region of the hypothalamus tied to stress and social behavior, already known to be partly influenced by microbe activity in mice later in life.
Related: An Extra Sense May Connect Gut Bacteria With Our Brain
“At birth, a newborn body is colonized by microbes as it travels through the birth canal,” says behavioral neuroscientist Alexandra Castillo Ruiz.
“Birth also coincides with important developmental events that shape the brain. We wanted to further explore how the arrival of these microbes may affect brain development.”
Cell numbers were lower in germ-free (GF) mice. (Milligan et al., Horm. Behav., 2025)
When the germ-free mice were just a handful of days old, the researchers found fewer neurons in their PVN, even when microbes were introduced after birth. That suggests the changes caused by these microorganisms happen in the uterus during development.
These neural modifications last, too: the researchers also found that the PVN was neuron-light even in adult mice, if they’d been raised to be germ-free. However, the cross-fostering experiment was not continued into adulthood (around eight weeks).
The details of this relationship still need to be worked out and researched in greater detail, but the takeaway is that microbes – specifically the mix of microbes in the mother’s gut – can play a notable role in the brain development of their offspring.
“Rather than shunning our microbes, we should recognize them as partners in early life development,” says Castillo-Ruiz. “They’re helping build our brains from the very beginning.”
While this has only been shown in mouse models so far, there are enough biological similarities between mice and humans that there’s a chance we’re also shaped by our mother’s microbes before we’re born.
One of the reasons this matters is because practices like Cesarean sections and the use of antibiotics around birth are known to disrupt certain types of microbe activity – which may in turn be affecting the health of newborns.
In particular, it could be leading to changes in stress and social behavior, as handled by the PVN part of the brain – though it’s too early to make any definitive conclusions. In the words of the researchers, it “merits further investigation”.
An obvious follow-up would be to investigate how the microbiota of mothers-to-be can be altered. Previous research has already linked these gut microbes to changes in diet, sleep patterns, alcohol intake, and overall health, for example.
“Our study shows that microbes play an important role in sculpting a brain region that is paramount for body functions and social behavior,” says Castillo-Ruiz.
“In addition, our study indicates that microbial effects start in the womb via signaling from maternal microbes.”
The research has been published in Hormones and Behavior.
The moon never looks exactly the same from night to night. Its changing appearance is a result of its journey around Earth. This is called the lunar cycle.
The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon’s visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth.
So, let’s see what’s happening with the moon tonight, Sept. 1.
What is today’s moon phase?
As of Monday, Sept. 1, the moon phase is Waxing Gibbous, and 62% will be lit up to us on Earth, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Observation.
There’s lots to see on the moon’s surface tonight, so lets get into it. With no visual aids, you’ll see the Tycho Crater, the Mare Crisium, and the Mare Tranquillitatis. With binoculars, you’ll also get a glimpse of the Mare Nectaris, the Mare Frigoris, and the Apennine Mountains.
If you have a telescope too, you’ll see so much more. Enjoy glimpses of the Apollo 11, Descartes Highlands, and the Rupes Recta, a 68-mile-long lunar fault line.
When is the next full moon?
The next full moon will be on Sept. 7. The last full moon was on Aug. 9.
Mashable Light Speed
What are moon phases?
According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:
New Moon – The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The moon starts losing light on the right side.
Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) – Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
The Earth supports the only known life in the universe, all of it depending heavily on the presence of liquid water to facilitate chemical reactions. While single-celled life has existed almost as long as the Earth itself, it took roughly three billion years for multicellular life to form. Human life has existed for less than one 10 thousandth of the age of the Earth.
All of this suggests that life might be common on planets that support liquid water, but it might be uncommon to find life that studies the universe and seeks to travel through space, like we do. To find extraterrestrial life, it might be necessary for us to travel to it.
However, the vastness of space, coupled with the impossibility of traveling or communicating faster than the speed of light, places practical limits on how far we can roam. Only the closest stars to the sun could possibly be visited in a human lifetime, even by a space probe. In addition, only stars similar in size and temperature to the sun are long-lived enough, and have stable enough atmospheres, for multicellular life to have time to form. For this reason, the most valuable stars to study are the 60 or so sun-like stars that are closer to us than approximately 30 light-years. The most promising planets orbiting these stars would have sizes and temperatures similar to the Earth, so solid ground and liquid water can exist.
A needle in the haystack
Observing an Earth-like exoplanet separately from the star it is orbiting around is a major challenge. Even in the best possible scenario, the star is a million times brighter than the planet; if the two objects are blurred together, there is no hope of detecting the planet. Optics theory says that the best resolution one can get in telescope images depends on the size of the telescope and the wavelength of the observed light. Planets with liquid water give off the most light at wavelengths around 10 microns (the width of a thin human hair and 20 times the typical wavelength of visible light). At this wavelength, a telescope needs to collect light over a distance of at least 20 meters to have enough resolution to separate the Earth from the sun at a distance of 30 light-years. Additionally, the telescope must be in space, because looking through the Earth’s atmosphere would blur the image too much. However, our largest space telescope – the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – is only 6.5 meters in diameter, and that telescope was extremely difficult to launch.
Because deploying a 20-meter space telescope seems out-of-reach with current technology, scientists have explored several alternative approaches. One involves launching multiple, smaller telescopes that maintain extremely accurate distances between them, so that the whole set acts as one telescope with a large diameter. But, maintaining the required spacecraft position accuracy (which must be precisely calibrated to the size of a typical molecule) is also currently infeasible.
Other proposals use shorter wavelength light, so that a smaller telescope can be used. However, in visible light a sun-like star is more than 10 billion times brighter than the Earth. It is beyond our current capability to block out enough starlight to be able to see the planet in this case, even if in principle the image has high enough resolution.
One idea for blocking the starlight involves flying a spacecraft called a ‘starshade’ that is tens of meters across, at a distance of tens of thousands of miles in front of the space telescope, so that it exactly blocks the light from the star while the light from a companion planet is not blocked. However, this plan requires that two spacecraft be launched (a telescope and a starshade). Furthermore, pointing the telescope at different stars would entail moving the starshade thousands of miles, using up prohibitively large quantities of fuel.
A rectangular perspective
In our paper , we propose a more feasible alternative. We show that it is possible to find nearby, Earth-like planets orbiting sun-like stars with a telescope that is about the same size as JWST, operating at roughly the same infrared (10 micron) wavelength as JWST, with a mirror that is a one by 20 meter rectangle instead of a circle 6.5 meters in diameter.
With a mirror of this shape and size, we can separate a star from an exoplanet in the direction that the telescope mirror is 20 meters long. To find exoplanets at any position around a star, the mirror can be rotated so its long axis will sometimes align with the star and planet. We show that this design can in principle find half of all existing Earth-like planets orbiting sun-like stars within 30 light-years in less than three years. While our design will need further engineering and optimization before its capabilities are assured, there are no obvious requirements that need intense technological development, as is the case for other leading ideas.
If there is about one Earth-like planet orbiting the average sun-like star, then we would find around 30 promising planets. Follow-up study of these planets could identify those with atmospheres that suggest the presence of life, for example oxygen that was formed through photosynthesis. For the most promising candidate, we could dispatch a probe that would eventually beam back images of the planet’s surface. The rectangular telescope could provide a straightforward path towards identifying our sister planet: Earth 2.0.
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